Friday, 16 October 2015

Shouldering on

About a week ago I posted an entry about looking for a shortcut in the mass production of the shoulder pads for my 'Dredd' style Arbites Enforcers. I had a vague plan, but it involved a product I had never used and a process I had never tried. And let's face it, that's a weak kind of plan, even on a good day. So I was somewhat apprehensive about tackling it and didn't really know how to rate my chances. Well, I had a go, and the good news is, it's only gone and worked! Not just that, but the whole process turned out to be quite straightforward. Basically I made a simple mould, by pressing Instant Mold up against the test model, then let it set and pushed Green Stuff into it. Before starting I bought the Instant Mold online from Element Games here, and watched Brian Hassan's tutorial video, Greenstuff 101: Instant Mold on his TemplarCrusade01 YouTube channel here. It's an easy, straightforward process, but for anyone thinking of trying it, I would still recommend they watch Brian's video a couple of times first.

Get some of this (obviously)

Soak it in hot water and push it against the area to be cast

Push Green Stuff into the resulting moulds

Let Green Stuff dry overnight, then pop out the pads in the morning

Carefully trim off the excess Green Stuff

When I realised how simple this was, I decided to make a whole bunch of moulds in one go. This would give me a greater chance of getting a really good one, and, if I got more than one decent mould, speed up the time it would take to cast enough pads for my entire squad.

Once the pads are cast they need to be inspected, sorted, then trimmed into shape. On my first batch of 6, I got a grand total of two that I was happy with. With my exceptionally low lifetime goals and attainment targets I'm claiming the 33% success rate as a pass. And anyway, after another couple of sessions, and the replacement of a few of the weaker moulds, I soon got most of the pads I need. Which theoretically means I'm on the home straight for my Arbites, with just the arms, elbow pads and weapons to go. What could possibly go wrong?I'm sure I'll find something.